Last Friday, The Injury Blog detailed an apprehensible Chicago police brutality case in which an off-duty officer was caught on camera beating up a female bartender, and it now appears that the heat is being felt. Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline abruptly resigned yesterday in the wake of two videotaped incidents of alleged barroom brutality by off-duty police officers and the investigation into another taped fight.  While Cline was expected to retire later this year, his resignation especially seemed quickened by the brutal video showing off-duty officer Anthony Abbate beating up a female bartender who has not filed a personal injury lawsuit as of yet.

Apparently, the apple didn’t far off the tree for the Abbate family. Just as Cline resigned in the wake of the nationally-shown video depicting Anthony Abbate beating up the female bartender, a special story to the Daily Southtown reveals that a third-such taped incident of a barroom brawl actually involved Abbate’s brother, Terry. The story reported that 12-year Chicago police officer Terry M. Abbate is accused of fighting with an off-duty police officer from Washington, D.C. during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the Windy City.

According to the story, Abbate and the officer from Washington, D.C. were involved in a fight at a downtown Chicago bar. The story said that the  videotape shows the two officers on the ground, and both men are later seen walking away when the fight ended. Chicago police spokesman Monique Bond said that D.C. officer did not file a complaint with the department’s Office of Professional Standards until ten days after the incident. While Bond did not say that the involved Chicago officer was Terry Abbate, other sources indicated that it was him.

Terry Abbate remains on active duty pending the outcome of a state attorney’s office investigation. The story added that the Chicago Police Department is quickly moving to fire Anthony Abbate for the February 19^th incident. An unrelated videotaped brawl of six Chicago police officers beating up four businessmen at a bar occurred on December 15^th.